A Pioneer Jewish Community – Samuel Saltzman
Research Group – Overview of roles and tasks for data gathering
Roles and Tasks
Your group task is to find out as much as you can about Samuel Saltzman1881 – 1963.
Your group roles include the following people. You need to choose or assign the following roles...
5A Researcher: The role of the researcher is to locate and gather information resources
about your subject from websites and books. This will include biographies and other
historical information.
5B Archivist: The role of the archivist is to locate original information resources (primary
resources) about the subject. This will include a visit to the cemetery for photographs of
personal information, printing out or taking notes from newspaper cuttings, and archived
photos where these are available.
5C Journalist: The role of the journalist is to write a series of short narratives or paragraphs
about the subject for publication using material located by the researcher and the archivist.
5D Editor/Producer: The role of the editor/producer is to gather
cemetery data, design the layout and create the end product.
Samuel Saltzman:
Samuel Saltzman is buried
in the plot numbered 95
Genealogy society map in
Dunedin’s Southern
Cemetery.
Jewish portion Dunedin Southern
Cemetery
Hebrew Translation: here lies Solomon, son of shalom,
deceased on the 1st(?) Tammuz 5723. May his soul be
bund up in the bond of everlasting life. (Ockwell, 1985)
Jewish Section Map reproduced from Ngaire Ockwell, (1985). Southern Cemetery Dunedin. Vol 5.
Jewish and Chinese Portion. Member of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists.
Samuel Saltzman 1881 - 1963
For the Researcher
Samuel Saltzman was born in a small village named Kurow in Poland. Here he
grew up, was given a limited education, and at age 13 apprenticed to the tailoring
trade.
Life in rural Poland was harsh at that time, and the Jewish tailor’s apprentice
decided to move to Warsaw about 150 miles distant. Conditions in the city were
little better however, and with a friend he decided to travel to England. The two
young men arrived in London virtually penniless (they were robbed on the wharf),
urgently in need of work, and quite ignorant of the English language.
To obtain employment they later moved on to New York. Mr Saltzman’s early
companion is reported to have made for California and become a millionaire in
the motion picture industry.
Although by this time Saltzman had accumulated a sound training in his trade (he
was specialising in women’s tailoring) Saltzman found the work was becoming
seasonal. It was during this period that he moved across the continent finally
reaching California. From there he sailed for New Zealand after reading after
reading a favourable newspaper story about this country. He landed in
Wellington with little in his possession but within a few hours had found himself a
position with a leading firm. He then took a trip to Australia but did not find the
country to his liking and returned to New Zealand.
Subsequently he worked in various areas in the North Island and then moved
south to Christchurch where he established a business of his own with a capital
of 20 pounds. He later decided there were better prospects for a tailor in
Greymouth, so he went there, arriving almost penniless, but this time he began to
prosper. On a visit to Dunedin he made he made a sudden decision to start a
women’s tailoring business in this city and he remained there for the rest of his
life.
Above St John’s ambulance regional headquarters
Dunedin
Samuel Saltzman 1881-1963
For the Researcher
He was a man who had known great poverty and realising its implications
became one of New Zealand’s leading philanthropists. During his lifetime he is
known to have contributed more than 35,000 pounds to humanitarian causes,
building hospitals, clinics, health camps, a sanatorium, a tuberculosis block at
Balclutha, the St. John Ambulance building in Dunedin, and a small settlement
in Israel. He was recognised in the New Years’ Honours List in 1939 with an
O.B.E.
Mr Saltzman was not a man to seek publicity and besides his public
benefactions there are many who may have well benefitted from his private
generosity. During the years of the Great Depression, for example, he gave a
total of 1,000 bags of coal for distribution, and anonymously paid for groceries.
The foundation stone St John’s Building, Dunedin.
“When I sat in my easy chair beside the fire in the winter time in those years,”
he told a Daily Times reporter, “I had to do something so that others could
share the comfort”. It was his philosophy that not all are called to serve
humanity in the same capacity, but must make the best use of their talents: to
some it is given to serve on civic bodies or in parliament, others again can
serve in professional capacities.“I have only served in the way it has been
possible for me to help”.
Samuel Saltzman died in Dunedin Public Hospital on 22 June
1963 as a result of injuries received when he was knocked down
by a car while crossing Great King Street. He was unmarried and
lived at the Leviathan Hotel, and was survived by a brother Leon
of Wellington. He is buried in Dunedin’s Southern Cemetery
Jewish Section.
From “Stories in Stone” regular ODT feature for Historic Cemeteries
Conservation Trust of New Zealand.
Samuel Saltzman 1881 - 1963
For the Archivist
Books
Further information about Samuel Saltzman is available in Odeda Rosenthal. (1988). Not Strictly
Kosher: Pioneer Jews in New Zealand, New York. Starchand Press.
“Another member of the Dunedin Jewish Congregation was Samuel
Salzman,[sic] the tailor who lived in a boarding house. Saltzman never went
anywhere other than his shop or his synagogue. Women, some arriving from
far away, were forever around him for he was famous for his exquisite
designs and flawless tailoring services. He never spent his money and he
was known to give money to other men who lived in the boarding house,
particularly if they were short of funds for courting their girls. Tales of how
Saltzman refused to accept repayment were many. He gave, he said
because he had. In the end the city of Dunedin benefitted from his frugality.
Photograph of Samuel
Saltzman reproduced
with permission from the
Otago Daily Times 24
June 1963.
The St John Ambulance Corps was founded with a donation from
Salzman[sic] , which was substantial enough to cover the cost of the first
ambulance fleet, the building and an endowment that lasted for years. The
ambulance service is now so much a part of New Zealand Society that few
can imagine life without it. The Corps headquarters have remained in
Dunedin, where Saltzman’s name graces one of the cornerstones.”
(Rosenthal, 1988, pp105 – 106)
Samuel Saltzman 1881 – 1963 – Obituary For the researcher
Samuel
Saltzman
Obituary
reproduced
with
permission
from the
Otago Daily
Times 24
June 1963.
Samuel Saltzman 1881 – 1963 For the researcher
Samuel Saltzman Obituary Otago Daily Times 24 June 1963.